Something She Forgot
by astradanvers
Summary: There's always something just there on the edge of Emma's mind that she can't quite remember. She knows it's important though. Set before the second half of season 3 started.


There's always been something, it plays just on the edges of Emma's mind when she watches Henry doing certain things. The way he arches one eyebrow when she says something that doesn't quite make sense to him, his habit of keeping his room meticulously clean, the amount of sass he can pack into one sentence and so many others. None of those things come from his father and they don't come from her so she wonders more often than not where he's picked them up from. When that wonder slips into her mind she feels that little niggling at the back of her mind like there's something, something oh so very important that she's forgotten.

Its only when she finally lands in a green open meadow filled with tents and people and unfamiliar yet slightly familiar faces that she thinks the pieces may soon fall into place. Henry's hand is held tightly in her own and the pirate is just a little bit away from them, face first in the ground, when two women rush forward, "Emma," falling from one set of lips as, "Henry," falls from the second set. There are hands on Emma's shoulders, turning her over so that she's looking up at the woman hovering above her and for a moment the little niggling at the back of her mind rears up but then it's gone again.

"Who are you?" Emma demands even as she pulls Henry away from the second woman and closer to her side.

"Emma," the woman before her murmurs and stares down at Emma, "don't you remember?"

Before Emma can respond Hook cuts in, "The kiss didn't work," he says with a hiss as he rises to his feet. "I'm not her true love," he continues while dusting off his clothes. "If anyone needs me," he says, "I'll be in my tent," he finishes before walking away from the group.

Emma looks between the two women before her, "Why the hell does he keep going on and on about a kiss? A kiss can't do anything."

"True love's kiss," the woman closest to Henry says, "is the most powerful magic of all, Emma," she continues quietly. Looking at the second woman closer, the niggling at the back of Emma's mind rises up once more and this time it doesn't disappear, it continues to grow, forming into the picture of dreams she's had all her life. Dreams of this woman, dressed in classy business suits, wearing scowls and sneers, dreams of this woman sitting across from her with a slight smile on her lips, dreams of a much more adult nature that she refuses to think about with her son by her side. "What is it, Emma?" she questions lightly.

"Dreams," Henry says suddenly, "I dreamed of you," he tells her, "but I didn't remember the dreams until now, until I saw you."

"Me too," Emma says quietly. "The dreams came nearly every night but by the time morning came I didn't remember them, I didn't even remember having them until just now." She shakes her head, "I don't know what it means though," she says quietly while looking between the two women before her, "Can either of you explain this? Explain what any of it means?"

The woman closest to Henry arches one eyebrow and Emma is instantly reminded of her son's habit of doing the same thing, "Regina," the woman beside Emma says, "you have to help her to remember."

"Snow, it's not so simple," the other woman banters back, "only a child with your genes and the genes of your shepherd would not have a true love in any of the two suitors chasing after her."

"How can you be so sure?" Snow questions back while crossing her arms, "I mean obviously it wasn't Hook," she says, "but maybe it's Neal."

"She told the man she hoped he was dead the last time they found each other," Regina counters.

Snow shakes her head, "You know how Emma is, Regina, she fights to protect herself. She-"

"Is standing right the hell here," Emma finally breaks up the bantering conversation between the two women. Both older women look slightly abashed for a moment and Emma sighs while pulling herself up from the ground before reaching back a hand to Henry, "Will the two of you please explain to me what exactly the hell is really going on here?" she demands while crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at the two women.

The two women look back and forth between themselves before Regina sighs, "Snow, take Henry over to the corral, I'm sure he'll love seeing Doctor again and I'll talk to Emma."

Snow scowls, "Why do you get to explain to Emma?"

"Because I might be the only one who can make her remember, Snow, and right now we need her to remember." She reaches out to Henry instinctively but Emma pulls him back, "Henry will be fine, Emma," she tells the blonde, "I promise you," she says meeting Emma's eyes, "no one in this compound will let any harm befall him."

With a slight nod Emma responds, "They better not otherwise they'll have me to answer to."

"They won't," Regina assures then glances at Snow, "please take him over to the corral, we'll be along in a moment."

Finally Snow gives a nod and reaches out to Henry, allowing the boy to move ahead of her before she hooks an arm around his shoulders, "You've grown so much, Henry," they hear her say as she leads him away.

Once Emma is sure that her son will be safe her gaze turns to the woman before her, "Please," she says, "just tell me what is going on."

Regina nods and motions towards the outskirts of the camp, silence falling between the two of them as she leads them down a small path to a river. Regina lifts herself onto a rock at the side of the river and faces Emma who is standing at the river's edge, "Your life didn't go the way you remember it going," she begins.

"Of course it did," Emma says instantly.

Regina shakes her head, "No, it didn't and if you think about it. If you really study the memories implanted in your mind, you'll find they're all a bit fuzzy around the edges. You believe the Swans kept you when you were three, that they raised you alongside their child but that they died before Henry was born. You remember meeting Henry's father but not his name or even what he looked like. You remember all the things from Henry's younger years but the images are all a bit blurry, not quite right, like something is just a bit out of place." Regina looks up to Emma then, tears swimming in her own brown eyes, "You," she says, "you feel like you're just a bit out of place in your own memories."

Emma stares at the woman across from her and prepares to deny the claim once more but when she opens her mouth to refute it, "How do you know all that?" falls past her lips instead.

"I gave you those memories," Regina says quietly. "When you were eighteen years old you put your son up for adoption and he found his way to a small town in Maine, a town that didn't exist on any map. I adopted him, cared for him, loved him and raised him but I harbored a secret and when he learned that secret he went to find you. You brought him back to me and then you stayed because he told you all about Storybrooke, how time never moved, how things never changed, children never grew up and people never aged. You didn't stay because you believed him, you stayed to prove him wrong but I'm afraid I gave you the one thing you needed to prove him right. You saved our son with true love's kiss and you broke the curse on Storybrooke, the curse that I had cast. There was conflict and discourse surrounding our small town after that but you protected me," she says, "because Henry asked you to. And then Storybrooke was nearly destroyed but we saved it but at a great cost. Our son was kidnapped but we got him back," she sighs, "but there was a new curse coming, a curse cast by Peter Pan and I had to stop it. The price of stopping the curse though was that I could never see the thing that I loved most again."

"Henry," Emma whispers out across from her.

Regina nods, "Partially yes," she says just as quietly, "to everyone but you and I, yes, only Henry."

"They aren't dreams," Emma says suddenly, "they're memories, that's why I could never remember them when I woke, it wasn't time for me to."

"I don't know," Regina says, "it's possible."

"We were together," the blonde continues as if Regina hasn't spoken, "you and I, we were together when you altered my memories. That's why I know you have a tattoo –"

"Yes, Miss Swan," Regina says firmly, cutting the blonde's words off, "and I would appreciate if we kept that between you and me."

Emma watches Regina for a moment and then she questions quietly, "Why haven't you kissed me then?"

Regina's downcast eyes rise to meet Emma's, "Because I can't be your true love, Emma."

"Why not?" Emma demands.

"Because my true love died," Regina says solemnly.

Emma shakes her head, "You can't tell me you really believe that people only get one true love in their whole lives." The blonde moves toward the rock Regina is sitting on and stops in front of it, "People change," she says quietly, "all throughout their lives people change and unless those people are changing together and sometimes that doesn't even matter, they can grow apart, become wrong for each other and better for someone else." Emma reaches out, "And if my dreams really are memories," she says as she wipes away the tears that have tracked down Regina's cheeks, "then we were pretty good for each other."

Meeting sea green eyes, "You and I were fairly good for each other, I suppose," she says with a small smile. "But what if I'm not right for you?"

"We'll never know unless we try," Emma says while she reaches out and places her hands on either side of Regina's waist and lifts her up, moving her closer to the side of the rock and stepping into the space between her knees. "But I think you are."

"How are you so sure?"

Emma smiles as she leans closer, "Because I dreamed of you," she says, "I dreamed of you and not anyone else in that compound. I dreamed of you and our son, of our family," she says, "our happy ending."

Regina smiles at just the thought of Emma's words, the mere mention that she even has a possibility of a happy ending but it soon falls away, "I'm not supposed to get a happy ending, Emma," she whispers, "villains don't deserve happy endings."

Leaning forward just slightly Emma smirks, "I see no villains here," she says quietly, "I see only you."

"I am a villain, Emma."

"No," Emma said firmly, "no, I don't believe that." She laid a finger against Regina's lips when the brunette started to speak again, "Just let me try something, okay?" she asked and after a few moments Regina nodded. Emma smiled and removed her finger from Regina's lips, running it across her cheekbone, tracing the planes of Regina's face slowly, "Ever since I realized that the dreams I've been remembering were actually memories I've been trying to remember more and more of them." She brushed the long brunette curls that she remembered being shorter away from Regina's face, "I remember those last moments more clearly than anything else," she says quietly while running her fingers skittering down Regina's arm and clasping the older woman's hand in her own, tracing the soft skin there, "I remember you promising me happy memories." She smiles and Regina's fingers slip deftly between her own and just seem to fit, there's no feeling invading her senses that she needs to snatch her hand away because it isn't where it's supposed to be, no thought that she doesn't want her hand locked with the tanned hand molded to hers, "And they were happy memories," she promises as she lets her eyes rise to meet the cinnamon brown ones before her, "but they didn't belong to me." She traces a thumb along the hand in hers, "They belonged to you, they were your memories of our son growing up, his first words, his first steps," she shakes her head, "my memories are of the strong capable boy that you raised, that you taught to walk and talk and be proud of himself and to believe and fight for those beliefs. I want the memories that I have of you and of him, the memories of the life we shared." She leans in slowly, raising one hand to Regina's cheek and cupping it, stroking a thumb over her cheekbone, "I want you to give them back to me."

"I –" Regina starts but Emma doesn't let her finish, instead Emma's pink lips slam against Regina's blood red ones. A wave ripples out from them and washes across the Enchanted Forest. Emma pulls away slowly, thumb still tracing the lines of Regina's cheek, "Well do you remember?" Regina questions but instead of answering with words Emma kisses her again.

The kiss lasts longer this time but before it can come to its natural end someone is crashing into them, knocking Regina from the rock she's sitting on and into Emma who lands with a hard _thump_ against the ground a groan following behind as Regina lands on top of her and a third form on Regina's back, "I remember!" Henry shouts in both of their ears.

Both of his mothers chuckle and Regina looks down on the woman below her and smiles, "You broke the curse again," she says.

Emma shakes her head, "We broke the curse this time."


End file.
